Ron DeSantis is the 46th governor of Florida, having served since January 8, 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Andrew Gillum in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election. As governor, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida, DeSantis resisted taking certain measures that other state governments implemented, such as face-mask mandates, stay-at-home orders, and vaccination requirements. During the pandemic, Florida experienced above-average economic growth. DeSantis cut state-government spending, which, combined with high sales-tax revenue from economic growth, led to the largest budget surplus in Florida history. He engaged in recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole, and oversaw the passage of the controversial Parental Rights in Education Act. He was reelected in a landslide in the 2022 Florida gubernatorial election; his 19.4% margin of victory over Charlie Crist was the state's largest in 40 years. He has generally governed as a conservative.
Electoral history 2018 gubernatorial candidacy
On January 5, 2018, DeSantis filed to run for governor of Florida to succeed term-limited Republican incumbent Rick Scott. President Trump had said the previous month that he would support DeSantis should he run for governor. During the Republican primary, DeSantis emphasized his support for Trump by running an ad in which DeSantis taught his children how to "build the wall" and say "Make America Great Again". Asked whether he could name an issue on which he disagreed with Trump, DeSantis declined. On August 28, 2018, DeSantis won the Republican primary, defeating his main opponent, Adam Putnam.
The general election was "widely seen as a toss-up". On election night, initial results had DeSantis winning, and so Gillum conceded. Gillum rescinded his concession when the margin narrowed to 0.4 percent, and an automatic machine recount began with a November 15 deadline. Although three counties missed the deadline, it was not extended. DeSantis was confirmed as the winner and Gillum conceded on November 17.
2022 gubernatorial candidacy
In September 2021, DeSantis announced he would run for reelection. On November 7, he filed the necessary paperwork to officially enter the race. In the general election, he faced Democratic nominee Charlie Crist, a U.S. representative and former Florida governor.Miami Herald (via McClatchy), "Feds say $5,000 donation to Florida Gov. Crist is illegal". February 27, 2009 (accessed October 16, 2019) Crist heavily criticized DeSantis's decision to transport illegal immigrants to Democratic states, arguing that it was human rights abuse. During an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News, Crist called DeSantis "one of the biggest threats to democracy".
DeSantis won the November 8 election in a landslide, with 59.4% of the vote to Crist's 40%; it was the largest margin of victory in a Florida gubernatorial election since 1982. Significantly, DeSantis won Miami-Dade County, which had been a Democratic stronghold since 2002, and Palm Beach County, which had not voted Republican since 1986. Crist conceded the election shortly after DeSantis was projected as the winner. At DeSantis's victory rally, supporters chanted "two more years" at various times rather than the common "four more years" to show support for DeSantis for president in 2024.
Economy
Corporate income taxes were reduced in Florida to as low as 3.5 percent in 2021, but by 2022 had returned to the 2018 level of 5.5 percent. DeSantis has maintained Florida's low-tax status during his time as governor. In June 2019, DeSantis signed a $91.1 billion budget the legislature passed the previous month, which was the largest in state history at the time, even though he cut $131 million in appropriations. In June 2021, he signed a $101.5 billion budget that included $169 million in tax relief. In its 2021 session, the Florida legislature passed DeSantis's top priorities. During his tenure, DeSantis has had a generally smooth relationship with the legislature, which enacted many of his proposals. DeSantis received a B grade in 2020 from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, in their biennial fiscal policy report on America's governors.Kemp, David; Edwards, Cris (October 5, 2020).Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors 2020 Cato Institute.
Throughout most of 2019, Florida's unemployment rate hovered below 5 percent. During the COVID-19 lockdown in early to mid-2020, Florida, and most other states, saw unemployment rates near 15 percent. DeSantis partially blamed his gubernatorial predecessor, Rick Scott, for leaving behind a dejected unemployment system that created backlogs as COVID-19 damaged the state economy. Afterward, Florida's economy swiftly started recovering, and the unemployment rate fell below 7 percent by the latter half of 2020. In December 2020, DeSantis ordered the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to extend unemployment waivers until February 27, 2021. Florida saw fast economic growth in 2022 and 2023, together with a record state budget surplus. Since May 2022, Florida's unemployment rate has sat around two percent, below the national average.
As a result of a significant increase in gasoline prices, on November 22, 2021, DeSantis announced that he would temporarily waive Florida's gasoline tax in the next legislative session, in 2022.
DeSantis has advocated for teenagers to work. In 2024, he extended allowed working hours for children and relaxed restrictions on construction work by 16/17 year-olds. While his office crafted further legislative proposals to remove restrictions on child labour, in March 2025 DeSantis raised that "teenagers used to work at these resorts", questioning: "What’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part time?"
Education
In January 2019, DeSantis signed an executive order calling for the end of the nationwide K-12 educational standards initiative, Common Core, in Florida. On September 14, 2021, DeSantis announced that Florida would replace the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) test with a system of smaller tests scattered throughout the year. He said there would be three tests, in the fall, winter and spring, each smaller than the FSA. Florida commissioner of education Richard Corcoran agreed with the decision, calling it a "huge victory for the school system". The new system is to be implemented by the 2022–23 school year.
In March 2021, DeSantis proposed legislation to impose restrictions and stricter requirements for Florida universities to collaborate with Chinese academics and universities; he said this would crack down on economic espionage by China. DeSantis signed two such bills in June.
DeSantis proposed legislation to "require colleges to report any gift of $50,000 or more that is made directly or indirectly by a foreign government". The policies sought by DeSantis also would change Florida laws involving theft from cloud technology and the theft or trafficking of trade secrets by China. DeSantis signed two such bills in June 2021.
In July 2023, Florida's new education curriculum for middle schools, which included content on how "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit", came under criticism. DeSantis defended the curriculum as "the most robust standards in African American history", and said of the controversial content: "I think that they're probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later in life."
DeSantis sought to reshape the New College of Florida.
DeSantis is a proponent of school choice.
Critical race theory in schools In June 2021, DeSantis led an effort to ban the teaching of critical race theory in Florida public schools (though it had not been part of Florida's public school curriculum). He described critical race theory as "teaching kids to hate their country", mirroring a similar push by conservatives nationally. The Florida Board of Education approved the ban on June 10. The Florida Education Association criticized the ban, accusing the board of trying to hide facts from students. Other critics claimed the ban was an effort to "politicize classroom education and whitewash American history".
On December 15, 2021, DeSantis announced a new bill, the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act ("Stop WOKE Act"), which would allow parents to sue school districts that teach critical race theory. The bill is designed to combat "woke indoctrination" in Florida businesses, schools, and public universities, by preventing instruction that could make some people feel they bear "personal responsibility" for historic wrongdoings because of their race, gender or national origin, preventing instruction that teaches that people are "inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously", and preventing instruction that teaches that groups of people are oppressed or privileged based on their race, gender or national origin. He said of the bill, "No taxpayer dollars should be used to teach our kids to hate our country or hate each other." On August 18, 2022, federal judge Mark E. Walker blocked the act in businesses, saying that it violates the First Amendment and is too vague. Walker later blocked the act in public universities for the same reasons.
COVID-19 pandemic
During 2020 and 2021, scientists and media outlets gave mixed reviews of DeSantis's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. From March 2020 through March 22, 2023, Florida had the 12th-highest rate of cases and deaths per 100,000 people among the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, without adjusting for the age of Florida's large and vulnerable elderly population. Florida's age-adjusted death rate, which takes its disproportionately elderly population into account, was roughly near the median among states as of 2021, and a 2022 study placed it at the nation's 12th lowest.Woolfolk, John. "Why major study argues Florida's COVID death rate compares favorably to California's", The Mercury News (April 2, 2023): "Florida's older, unhealthier population contributed to its higher number of deaths ... COVID-19 is deadlier among the aged and diseased .... With an adjustment to show what it would look like if each state had the same age and health profile as the United States as a whole, Florida's death rate jumped to 12th lowest, while California's fell to 36th."Bollyky, Thomas et al. "Assessing COVID-19 pandemic policies and behaviours and their economic and educational trade-offs across US states from Jan 1, 2020, to July 31, 2022: an observational analysis", The Lancet (March 23, 2023). By 2023, many political scientists acknowledged that DeSantis's management of the pandemic may have benefited him in his reelection campaign, and he was credited with turning "his coronavirus policies into a parable of American freedom".
2020
By March 11, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) concluded that community spread of the pandemic had occurred within Florida. After considering the matter for a few weeks, on April 1 DeSantis issued an executive order to restrict activities within the state to those deemed essential services. By June, he had adopted a more targeted approach, declaring in mid-June:
We're not shutting down, we're gonna go forward, we're gonna continue to protect the most vulnerable...particularly when you have a virus that disproportionately impacts one segment of society, to suppress a lot of working-age people at this point I don't think would likely be very effective.
That approach was similar to the one recommended a few months later in the Great Barrington Declaration.. DeSantis got vaccinated for COVID-19, and expressed enthusiasm for people getting vaccinated, but has opposed requiring it.